from the Daily Mail
Study found there was a ‘more constant relationship’ between cannabis and violence than between alcohol or cocaine use and violence
Cannabis users are more likely to
commit violent crime, pioneering research has shown.
It warned those who smoke the drug regularly
run an increased risk of using violence against others.
The project is the first to demonstrate
that cannabis is not only linked with violent crime but is the cause.
Violent incidents monitored by the
study based on the lives of more than 1,100 American psychiatric patients
included assaults, attacks with weapons and rapes.
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PICTURED: A CCTV image of the Somali-born Muhiddin Mire, 30, (left) during a shocking rampage at Leytonstone Tube station. A court heard his addiction to skunk cannabis had altered his brain to make him believe he was being followed by MI5
|
Researchers said that cannabis causes
violence and they found no evidence that the link is the other way round – ie
that violent people are more likely to use cannabis.
There was no support, they added, for
theories put forward by campaigners anxious to free the drug from the taint of
links with crime.
The academics said the effect of
cannabis use was clear and not diminished by other factors such as patients who
were heavy drinkers of alcohol.
The study comes after a series of
American states have decriminalised cannabis – despite it being stronger and
more potent than the hash smoked by hippies in the Sixties – or made it
available for medical use.
A number of influential figures have
backed a campaign for British laws banning the drug to be relaxed, including
Richard Branson, Sting and former Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg.
Even Prince William gave a boost to the
liberalisation lobby last month when he asked a group of recovering addicts at a
drugs charity about legalising banned drugs.
The Prince observed: ‘There’s obviously
a lot of pressure growing on areas about legalising drugs.’
THE SHOCKING TOLL OF ATTACKS LINKED TO CANNABIS USERS
A string of serious
crimes has been committed by users of skunk cannabis.
Muhiddin Mire, 30
The schizophrenic was
jailed for life for the attempted murder of commuters at Leytonstone Tube
station, East London, in 2016. A court heard his addiction to skunk cannabis
had altered his brain to make him believe he was being followed by MI5.
Walter Pantellaro,
27
The kung fu champion
was tried for kicking his way into a London flat in March and attacking a
woman, 22, with a knife. She was saved by her 15-year-old brother, who was hurt
as he defended her with a chair.
Pantellaro, a
schizophrenic who thought he was God, told police he had taken cocaine. But
tests showed the only drug in his system was cannabis.
 |
| PICTURED: Walter Pantellaro, a
schizophrenic who thought he was God, told police he had taken cocaine but
tests showed the only drug in his system was cannabis. |
A cage fighter, he
was detained indefinitely at Broadmoor for beheading an elderly woman with a
machete on a rampage through gardens in North London in 2015. He was a heavy user
of skunk cannabis and thought his victim was Adolf Hitler or a demon in the form
of an old lady.
Matthew Graham, 29
The office worker was
detained after stabbing a prostitute in the neck with a seven-inch knife in
Rochdale in 2015. He struck her with
such ferocity that the handle snapped off while the blade remained lodged in
her neck. The court was told he was a schizophrenic whose attack had been
triggered by his use of cannabis.
Michael Adebowale, 22
The Islamist
extremist was jailed for the murder of drummer Lee Rigby in Woolwich,
South-east London, in 2013. His trial heard that his symptoms of psychosis were
increased by heavy use of cannabis.
He was tried for stabbing a homeless man near Putney Bridge Tube station,
West London, in 2013. Russell was said to be a schizophrenic with a history of
alcoholism and cannabis use.
She was convicted of
murder after stabbing a stranger Sally Hodkin, 58, in the street with a 12-inch
butcher’s knife in 2013. Edgington had been in
detention for killing her mother but had been freed. Before the stabbing, she
had told a psychiatric nurse she had stopped taking her medication and had used
skunk cannabis.
The latest study by five researchers
from institutes based in Montreal, Canada, examined the lives of 1,136 men and
women who were patients at psychiatric hospitals in Missouri, Pittsburgh and
Massachusetts.
Records were gathered from interviews
carried out every ten weeks for a year after their discharge.
It said patients who were using
cannabis at each of these five checks were nearly two-and-a-half times more
likely to have turned to violence than those who had not used the drug.
The study pointed to ‘significant
findings regarding the adverse effects of cannabis use on violence’.
It found there was a ‘more constant
relationship’ between cannabis and violence than between alcohol or cocaine use
and violence. The researchers said the link between cannabis and violence was
not two-way but ‘uni-directional’.
Contrary to claims that violent people
were drawn to use cannabis, researchers found ‘it was cannabis use that
predicted future violent behaviour’.
The academics said psychiatrists and
medical staff should watch for cannabis users among those who had been in
hospital for mental health problems. The team, led by Dr Jules R Dugre, said existing
evidence on the links between cannabis and violence was ‘limited’ but their
project had ‘clinical and violence risk management implications’.
Kathy Gyngell, a fellow of the Centre
for Policy Studies think-tank, welcomed the ‘definitive study’ and called for
official action. ‘Government has been seriously negligent,’ she said.
‘Where is the public health campaign on
the risks of cannabis? If ministers had any sense they would know that we
cannot afford this public health and safety crisis.
‘It must lead the Government to review
their community care policy for such potentially violent individuals to better
protect the public.’
The study in the journal Frontiers in
Psychiatry flies in the face of claims of former drugs tsar Professor David Nutt.
He was sacked by the Labour government
in 2009 for opposing the decision to reclassify cannabis from Class C to Class
B. Prof Nutt has long argued that alcohol was ‘considerably more dangerous’
than the drug.
More than 20 US states have in recent
years legalised cannabis for medical purposes.
Four–Colorado, Alaska, Oregon and
Washington–have allowed its recreational use.
After the relaxation in 2012 in Colorado,
cannabis use by students aged 12 to 18 has become the highest in the country.
Figures show 57 per cent tested positive in high school tests.
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